My father is maddeningly stubborn
Jan. 2nd, 2009 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
innerslytherinDad and I have been working for the past week on getting the TV aerial up. We've been operating on rabbit ears for sixteen years, but it had become obvious that with the switch to digital, we were going to lose a few channels--and we didn't have that many to lose. Yesterday we finally got everything connected and got the mast up, and then Dad was working in the crawlspace to get the coax cable into the house, the signal split, etc.
This involved drilling holes in the floor to get the cable up into the rooms with TVs. I was actually in the other room at the time, with Mom, and we heard him yell. Despite having a migraine, Mom beat me into the bedroom, and when I got there I found him sprawled on the bed, clutching bloody tissues to his hand.
He'd stabbed himself with a 3/4 drill bit. And this is not your typical drill bit, it's the kind with a triangular point that is incredibly sharp. Judging from the nearly half-inch length of the cut, I think it has to be a good quarter-inch deep, if not more. And my dad can't remember if he's ever had a tetanus shot, let alone in the past ten years.
When I was a kid, I read a book that was set on an Indian Reservation. I can't remember all the particulars, but the part that sticks with me vividly is the part where the younger sister steps on a nail or something and ends up with tetanus. I've had a somewhat pathological fear of the disease ever since, and the thought that 10-20% of all tetanus cases are fatal, and that death is by suffocation... *shudders*
So Dad and I have been arguing since last night about the clinic. Mom didn't make him go last night, since the nearest urgent care in-network is like 30 miles away. But he keeps saying he doesn't need a shot, and I keep telling him that we split the driving responsibilities, and he can't control where I drive to this afternoon. I suppose we'll see, after work, if he's willing to drive home to avoid going to the clinic. If he beats me to the car and is in the driver's seat, I probably won't get him to go. But if I'm driving, we're going to the clinic and his choices will be to sit in the car and pout at me, drag me physically out of the driver's seat and into the passenger's seat, or get the damn shot.
The good news in all this is that when Supernatural starts up again, I'll be able to watch it in real time, because we now get the CW.
This involved drilling holes in the floor to get the cable up into the rooms with TVs. I was actually in the other room at the time, with Mom, and we heard him yell. Despite having a migraine, Mom beat me into the bedroom, and when I got there I found him sprawled on the bed, clutching bloody tissues to his hand.
He'd stabbed himself with a 3/4 drill bit. And this is not your typical drill bit, it's the kind with a triangular point that is incredibly sharp. Judging from the nearly half-inch length of the cut, I think it has to be a good quarter-inch deep, if not more. And my dad can't remember if he's ever had a tetanus shot, let alone in the past ten years.
When I was a kid, I read a book that was set on an Indian Reservation. I can't remember all the particulars, but the part that sticks with me vividly is the part where the younger sister steps on a nail or something and ends up with tetanus. I've had a somewhat pathological fear of the disease ever since, and the thought that 10-20% of all tetanus cases are fatal, and that death is by suffocation... *shudders*
So Dad and I have been arguing since last night about the clinic. Mom didn't make him go last night, since the nearest urgent care in-network is like 30 miles away. But he keeps saying he doesn't need a shot, and I keep telling him that we split the driving responsibilities, and he can't control where I drive to this afternoon. I suppose we'll see, after work, if he's willing to drive home to avoid going to the clinic. If he beats me to the car and is in the driver's seat, I probably won't get him to go. But if I'm driving, we're going to the clinic and his choices will be to sit in the car and pout at me, drag me physically out of the driver's seat and into the passenger's seat, or get the damn shot.
The good news in all this is that when Supernatural starts up again, I'll be able to watch it in real time, because we now get the CW.
